The Beatles - The Beatles - 1968
In a way, the music of The Beatles evolved a bit like a person's life: At first, they were all happiness and innocence and simplicity. Then, they became teenagers, anxious to try new things, experimenting, and convinced that the crazier the better. They most likely became arrogant and too full of themselves.
But in this album, they seemed to have reached a certain maturity. Not the maturity that ends up making the majority of people forget the madness of their youth, but the cooler one, the one that tells you that you no longer have to please anybody, that you can do what you want, that you can now and then indulge in the silliness of childhood and other times tell the world that you feel annoyed or jaded.
By the time this album was recorded and released, The Beatles were already having a lot of internal conflicts, and were quite close to splitting up more than once. That's the main reason, I think, why you can so clearly tell who is in each song, and who wrote them. It makes this one a very uneven album at times, but it also makes it an immense album. Most of the album was written while they were in India, in their meditation holiday with the Maharishi, and some of them show part of the disappointment with which they returned.
The fact that it would become entangled so much in the social and political events of the times collaborates to give this album the aura of "mystery" that it has achieved with the years.
It's a double album, and there's way too much to say, so I'm going to treat it as two different albums.
The first disc starts with "Back in the USSR", and in a way seems to repeat the pattern of the past two albums, starting with an energetic rocker. This one is a straightforward rock song, the kind they hadn't done in years. Half tribute / half joke about Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA", it sets the tone for this first part of the album, which seems to be the more "standard" of the two parts. For the most part, the songs are fun, quirky and not too involved in social issues. There is a huge gap between the McCartney's songs, very cheerful (almost to the point of outright silliness, take "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da", for example), and the ones written by Lennon, more introspective and focused on personal issues.
This part also has one of the finest Beatles songs, "While my Guitar Gently Weeps", written by George Harrison, who by now (fortunately, in my opinion) had left the Eastern experimentation and sitars behind.
This second part of the album, is also much more of a rocker than the previous one. The "first side" of this second disc is pretty much a rock album, and at times, it feels more rock oriented than other bands would at the time, like early Deep Purple, for example.
It is also the weirder of the two parts, not only because of the madness of "Revolution 9", but also for the nonsense of a song like "Birthday", that sounds like a weird homage to the 1950s, the intentional cheesiness of "Good Night", or the irony in the lyrics of "Revolution 1".
Random thoughts
In a way, the music of The Beatles evolved a bit like a person's life: At first, they were all happiness and innocence and simplicity. Then, they became teenagers, anxious to try new things, experimenting, and convinced that the crazier the better. They most likely became arrogant and too full of themselves.
But in this album, they seemed to have reached a certain maturity. Not the maturity that ends up making the majority of people forget the madness of their youth, but the cooler one, the one that tells you that you no longer have to please anybody, that you can do what you want, that you can now and then indulge in the silliness of childhood and other times tell the world that you feel annoyed or jaded.
By the time this album was recorded and released, The Beatles were already having a lot of internal conflicts, and were quite close to splitting up more than once. That's the main reason, I think, why you can so clearly tell who is in each song, and who wrote them. It makes this one a very uneven album at times, but it also makes it an immense album. Most of the album was written while they were in India, in their meditation holiday with the Maharishi, and some of them show part of the disappointment with which they returned.
The fact that it would become entangled so much in the social and political events of the times collaborates to give this album the aura of "mystery" that it has achieved with the years.
It's a double album, and there's way too much to say, so I'm going to treat it as two different albums.
I told you about the Walrus and me, man
This part also has one of the finest Beatles songs, "While my Guitar Gently Weeps", written by George Harrison, who by now (fortunately, in my opinion) had left the Eastern experimentation and sitars behind.
- While "Back in the USSR" seems to me clearly a fun and humorous song, they were heavily criticised by some who saw a "pro-communism" stance in the song.
- "Dear Prudence" was about Prudence Farrow (Mia's sister), who spent time with them in India and would spend her time practically as a recluse, meditating.
- "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" was about a real guy who had been with them in India and one day decided to go shooting some tigers. It's the first song ever to feature vocals from someone that wasn't part of the band, who was Yoko Ono, who says the lines "not when he looked so fierce"
- As I said, "While my Guitar gently Weeps" is one of my favourite Beatles' songs. It features a guest guitar player, a guy you may have heard of here and there, called Eric Clapton.
- Lennon wrote "I'm so tired" referring to him not being able to sleep while they were in India. It has the lines: "Although I'm so tired, I'll have another cigarette / And curse Sir Walter Raleigh, he was such a stupid git". Sir Walter Raleigh was who introduced tobacco in the UK.
- At the end of this song, there's some gibberish that can be heard spoken by John. This contributed to the "Paul is dead" theory, due to claims that if you play it backwards you can hear John saying: "Paul is dead man! Miss him, miss him, miss him". It's been said that what's being said, when playing it forward, is "Monsieur, monsieur, how about another one?". To be honest, I definitely can't hear the latter. There's a youtube video of it played backwards, and while I can't possibly hear the "Paul is dead man", it would seem to sound like "miss him miss him miss him".
- Clearly, the most controversial song of this first part is Harrison's "Piggies". Inspired by George Orwell's Animal Farm (as later Pink Floyd album Animals would be), it's a clear criticism to society and consumerism, written in a sardonic tone. Unfortunately, it's not just because of the social commentary that this song achieved such notoriety, but because it was one of the main songs that Charles Manson and his cult used in the horrendous Tate-LaBianca murders.
- "Rocky Raccoon" is a folk rock ballad, written by McCartney. At some point, Lennon agreed that it was Paul who wrote it saying: "Couldn't you guess? Would I have gone to all that trouble about Gideon's Bible and all that stuff?"
- "Don't Pass me by" is the first song ever recorded that was composed solely by Ringo Starr. He had actually written as far back as 1962. They didn't treat him too fairly, did they?
- "Julia", one of the most introspective songs in the album, was written by John and dedicated to his mother, who had died in an accident when he was 17. At that time, John was just starting to see her more often, since his parents had separated when he was 5, and he went to live with his aunt, and hardly ever saw his mother, who started a new family.
The eagle picks my eye, the worm he licks my bone
I was actually surprised when I heard this line now that I'm going back to this album. I had forgotten, or rather never realised how dark and gloomy this could be at times. The line is from "Yer Blues", and it's probably the darkest song the Beatles ever wrote.This second part of the album, is also much more of a rocker than the previous one. The "first side" of this second disc is pretty much a rock album, and at times, it feels more rock oriented than other bands would at the time, like early Deep Purple, for example.
It is also the weirder of the two parts, not only because of the madness of "Revolution 9", but also for the nonsense of a song like "Birthday", that sounds like a weird homage to the 1950s, the intentional cheesiness of "Good Night", or the irony in the lyrics of "Revolution 1".
- The aforementioned "Yer Blues" was also written in India, while John was "searching for God and feeling suicidal".
- The acoustic and quite bucolic "Mother Nature's Song" is a McCartney song which, as many songs in the album was only played by him. It has a sound that Paul would come back to in the earlier albums with Wings.
- The song with the longest title they ever released is "Everybody's got Something to Hide Except Me and my Monkey". While some people at the time thought that "monkey" referred to heroin, John actually stated that it referred to him and Yoko. So, you know, "me" is John and the "monkey" is Yoko. Not sure what to say about that.
- Lennon didn't leave India too happy. There had been allegations about the Maharishi making sexual advances towards Mia Farrow, and Lennon felt quite disappointed. He wrote the song "Sexy Sadie" about the Maharishi, and intended to call it "Maharishi", only changing the title at the insistence of George. Apparently, when the Maharishi asked John why he was leaving, he replied: "Well, if you're so cosmic, you'll know why".
- While Paul was always the one who wrote the more melodic songs, "Helter Skelter" is probably the heaviest and loudest song they ever wrote. While the song really doesn't mean much, Charles Manson managed to find secret meanings that, of course, suited his maniacal interests.
- Inspired by the 1968 protests, John Lennon wrote "Revolution", a song in which he sympathises with the feeling and ideals, but objects to the methods. Of course, it managed to annoy both left- and right- wing factions.
- Back in the day, I one day taped "Revolution 9" and actually went to the trouble to cut the tape (we're talking cassettes here), flip it back and roll it again to listen to it backwards. Of course, I didn't hear anything meaningful.
- This has been a bit long, I know. Still, it's an album that has tons of things to say about it. I'll go back to 2 - 3 album per post tomorrow.
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